New book traces history evolution of Stampede Queens

It sounds like the setup for a juicy scandal. Apparently, Stampede Queens or Princesses representing the Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth to the earth at large are subject to strict rules governing public and not-so-public behaviour when travelling around on promotional duties.

Apparently, Stampede Queens or Princesses representing the Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth to the earth at large are subject to strict rules governing public and not-so-public behaviour when travelling around on promotional duties.

As late as 1988, minutes from the Queen Committee revealed that breaches would be handled severely. If you disobeyed your chaperone, or were intoxicated, or left your room at night or had a male friend in said room, you would immediately be sent back to Calgary. What’s more, all of the above could be grounds for Queen having to “relinquish her title.”

There was no drinking and no smoking. Queens couldn’t be married and certainly could not have had a child. Any relations with the opposite sex, in fact, were strictly regulated.

But those looking for scandal will be disappointed. Jennifer Hamblin, author of the new book Calgary Stampede Queens (Rocky Mountain Books, 357 pages, $35), said there was no recorded case of a queen being stripped of her crown for naughty behaviour.

“I think it was pretty effective,” says Hamblin, about the code of conduct. “I think it came pretty close a couple of times. And occasionally they learned of something after the fact that would have maybe impacted. But I read the Queen Committee minutes at the Stampede archives and they were pretty frank about what was being discussed. Sometimes people had to have a little bit of a reminder or talking to. But most of them toed the line.”

Yes, by the time the 1980s rolled round, the responsibilities and expectations of being Stampede royalty were fairly well-established. Hamblin, a librarian and archivist for Calgary Glenbow Museum, traces the gentle and largely scandal-free story of the Stampede Queen and princesses in the handsome hardcover book. Calgary’s Stampede Queens chronicles the history from their earliest incarnations in the 1940s when the royals sold votes to win crowns to their more modern roles as sophisticated, cowboy-hatted PR representatives for the Stampede.

The project began for Hamblin with the surprise donation a few years back to Glenbow of a formidable collection of newspaper clippings from the 1940s to the 1980s. An amateur archivist left them behind after she passed away. Her husband brought them in and Hamblin became fascinated with the Stampede articles, particularly those about the queens over the years. She began doing other research, including interviewing dozens of past Stampede royalty.

“I didn’t grow up here and I didn’t know anything of the Stampede Queens except for what I saw of them in the Stampede parade,” she says. “I had just assumed they had been part of the Stampede forever,”

In fact, the Stampede was entering its sixth decade before it had a Queen. The first, Patsy Rodgers, was appointed. Following queens won their crowns by selling tickets to raise money for various charities that sponsored them, a contest that was run by the Associated Canadian Travellers. Those that sold the most tickets won. Second and third became ladies-in-waiting.

This continued on for nearly 20 years before the Stampede decided that the role should require Stampede royalty to have more appropriate skills, including the ability to ride. Believe it or not, this wasn’t always the case. In some of the earlier parades, Queens didn’t ride a horse at all but — the horror! — sat in the back of convertibles.

“It wasn’t a judged contest,” Hamblin says. “They didn’t have to ride, they didn’t have to speak, they didn’t have to prove they could meet and greet and all the kind of things you might expect the Queen and princesses to do nowadays. They won their positions and it was a wonderful prize. They got to have six days of Stampede and had these lunches and they went onto Stampede grounds and had a lot of fun. But I think very quickly the Stampede realized it was a great promotional tool for them as well. The public was starting to identify that these were Stampede queens and princesses, not the ACT’s.

By the late 1960s, the Stampede had fully taken over and the role became much closer to what it is today.

This is not to say that Hamblin doesn’t delve into some minor controversies. Former Calgary Herald columnist Catherine Ford criticized the Stampede Queen contest in the 1980s, as did Don Martin in the 1990s, suggesting it was outdated and the rules prohibiting mothers and married women from entering were insulting. Ford called the contest a “boring and predictable farce perpetrated each year in this city.” Both suggested it was basically a glorified beauty contest.

But the history of the stampede queen showed it was an institution that could be surprisingly progressive for the time period, whether it be the coronation of native Evelyn Eagle Speaker in 1954 or Chinese-Canadian Jennie Chow in 1958.

Over the years, the responsibilities of the Stampede Queen have increased. Queens and Princesses represent the organization all year round, attending between 400 and 500 events a year.

“They represent the face of the Stampede, but the Stampede is Calgary in a way,” Hamblin says. “So they also represent the city. And that’s been the case for 50 years.”

Jennifer Hamblin will hold a book lauch for Calgary’s Stampede Queens at the Glenbow Museum, in the Library and Archives, on May 21 at 7 p.m.

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